SINGAPORE – Low temperatures, strong winds, rain and sometimes snow are typical weather conditions in the United Kingdom this time of the year.

But for three hours each week, Jonathan Brownlee has been working out on an exercise bike and a treadmill in a room that can be heated up till 35 deg C in his home in Yorkshire.

The two-time Olympic triathlon medallist is training for the Singapore leg of the Super League Triathlon, which started its first official season in Jersey in September. The Feb 23-24 Singapore stop is the series finale, and will take place at One15 Marina on Sentosa.

“I’m not very good in the heat, as people have seen before,” said Brownlee, who had succumbed to heat during a 2016 race in Mexico and was helped over the finish line by his older brother Alistair as seen in a video that went viral.

“At home I’ve got a conservatory, it’s like a glass room and I’ve converted that into a heat chamber. I’ve put a heater in there – in the UK at the moment it’s three to four degrees outside, in my heat chamber I can get it to 30 to 35 degrees. Hopefully by the time I get to Singapore, I’ll be ready for the heat.”

The 28-year-old, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and silver in 2016 in Rio, was speaking to local media on Friday (Jan 11) during a conference call from Spain where he is currently training.

Brownlee previously said the Jersey race had taken “quite a lot out of me”, and on Friday he reiterated why the Super League Triathlon makes for a “super challenging” race.

“For Jersey, for the whole Super League, actually, the hardest day was the Enduro format, which is going to take place in Singapore as well,” he explained.

“If you’ve got any weakness you get found out and the fact that it happens on a Sunday (the second day of the event) means you’ve already raced the day before. So it’s really hard racing.”

The Enduro format features three continuous rounds, each comprising a 300m swim, a 5km bike ride and a 1.6km run. The two slowest athletes at the end of each discipline will be eliminated, and the winner is the first athlete across the finish line upon completion of the entire race sequence.

Brownlee, who will go to Thailand for 10 days to acclimatise to the heat before the Singapore event, is aiming to win at Sentosa and finish on the podium in the overall series rankings.

Describing this outcome as the “perfect” one as he is currently fourth in the overall ranking, he said: “About this time last year I had a bone injury in my femur… then I tried to come back for the Commonwealth Games (in April) too fast and I had a hamstring tendon problem and that affected me the whole year, and then I got ill before the league world series.

“I’m looking forward to racing well more than anything (as) I didn’t have my best season last year… I’m looking forward to being on the start line in Singapore excited, healthy and ready to race.”